The Prisoner Of Stone/Part 3
Vanity was walking around the village with his special heart-shaped mirror that he was carrying around for Smurfy Friendship Day. "This special day calls for a special mirror for this extra-special face, don't you agree?" he said to himself as he looked at his reflection. Then a female voice whispered his name from nearby. He looked and saw that it was Sassette, who was peering out of a bush. "Did you see the Smurflings?" she asked in a low voice as he came closer. "Why, no, Sassette, but then with a face like mine, who has time to smurf at anything else?" Vanity said. "What seems to be the problem?" "My fellow Smurflings seem to be lovestruck, Vanity, and I can't seem to smurf anything about it," Sassette said. "Ah, I know the feeling all too well," Vanity said as he looked at himself in his mirror. "I mean, I can't stop the Smurflings from smurfing all their attention upon me, and Papa Smurf won't smurf anything about it," Sassette said. "Such a burden that we all must carry, when we smurf so much attention from how we look toward others, my little dear," Vanity said. "At the very least, you will always have someone who will love you for just the way you are, for if you can't love yourself, then who will?" "Oh, let us smurf how many ways we love you..." the boy Smurflings sang as they soon found Sassette and gathered around her, playing their mandolins in a serenade. Sassette screamed and raced out into the forest so that she could find some peace and quiet away from the boy Smurflings who were relentlessly pursuing her. She watched from behind a rock as the boy Smurflings went out into the forest and called out her name in their search for her. "Fleeing flounders, don't they ever give up?" she said as she ran off in another direction. She soon found a cave that appeared to be empty, which looked like a good place for her to hide from the boy Smurflings. She went inside and sighed with some relief when she looked out and saw that the boy Smurflings were going away from her in their search. "Safe at last," she said to herself. Then suddenly there came a cackle of evil laughter from deep within the cave that startled Sassette. She began to wonder who else might be in the cave as she bravely went further inside to see for herself. In another cavern she saw a woman with wild orange hair who had the statue of a man that she was giving all her attention to. Sassette hid herself behind a small rock and watched the scene that was taking place. "Guess what, my darling?" the woman said as she appeared in the same room as the statue, with a serpent slithering right next to her. "It happens to be our anniversary today. It was thirty years ago when you would have married that sniveling sorceress." She threw her arms around the statue and embraced it as if it was a living person. "I had to rescue you from her, even if that meant turning you to stone forever." Sassette gasped as she realized that the woman was a witch, and the statue was a living person. "Oh no," she said to herself. "There's got to be some way to rescue that man from her, but how?" Then the rock she was hiding behind gave way, and Sassette soon found herself attracting the attention of the evil witch. "What's that?" she called out. "Who dares to disturb Drusilla in my private chambers? Show yourself, if you dare!" Sassette tried to hide herself behind the rock again, but Drusilla used a magic bolt of electricity to blast the rock into smithereens, exposing the little Smurfling to her. Sassette quickly ran for her life as Drusilla's pet serpents chased after her, causing her to flee from the cave. Soon she found herself back in the village, safe from the witch and her slithery pets. "Wait until Pappy Smurf hears about this," she said, hoping that he might get her help. But she soon stopped in her tracks when she saw who else was coming straight for her. It was the boy Smurflings, each of them bearing gifts to give to her for Smurfy Friendship Day. "Hello, Sassette," Snappy said. "So where have you been?" "We've been smurfing all over for you," Nat said. "We got some gifts for you, to show how special you really are," Slouchy said. Sassette decided to play along so that she could lose them. "Gee, how nice of you to smurf that for me," she said. "But you know, I'm awful hungry right now. It's too bad you didn't smurf me a piece of Greedy's smurfberry pie while you were at it." "Smurfberry pie?" Snappy said. "No problem, Sassy...we'll even smurf you a whole pie," Nat said. "Stay right there, Sassette, and we'll smurf it for you," Slouchy said as the three boy Smurflings rushed off to get the pie. "Sure I will," Sassette said, waiting until she saw that the Smurflings were gone before she ran off to find Papa Smurf. ----- Inside Papa Smurf's laboratory, Empath and Grandpa Smurf saw that Papa Smurf was finished with the creation of their birthday gift to Cupid. "Well, Grandpa, they're finally done," Papa Smurf said, holding up the finished pair of glasses. "Smurfarootie...these ought to improve the little fellow's aim," Grandpa Smurf said. "This smurf wouldn't think that somebody like Cupid might be in need for a pair of glasses at the age he's in right now, Papa Smurf," Empath said. "Age catches up even with the best of us, my little Empath," Papa Smurf said. "It's something you'll find out when you get to be as old as Grandpa Smurf." "My eyesight may not be the best, but the rest of me is still functioning like it has been for the past several centuries, Papa Smurf," Grandpa Smurf said. "Of course, if I ever get too old to be smurfing with the rest of you young Smurfs, I would sure like to smurf back to Smurfling Island before it becomes a memory." "This smurf would surely miss your presence in the village when that time comes for you to depart to the world where you were once Smurfling Pan, Grandpa Smurf," Empath said. "Pappy Smurf, Pappy Smurf," Sassette cried out as she rushed into his laboratory. "Great Smurfness, what's the matter, my little Sassette?" Papa Smurf asked as soon as she came in. "Is it those Smurflings again?" Grandpa Smurf asked, chuckling at the thought. "No, Grampy, it's something even weirder and a lot scarier," Sassette said as she jumped on top of the work table to show what she had encountered. "I smurfed into this cave in the forest, where I smurfed this poor man who has been smurfed into a statue, and he smurfed like this..." She posed in the same manner as the man that was turned into a statue. "Then Drusilla smurfed out, and her hair was all wavy like she was Medusa, and she cackled like an evil witch. She said, 'Who's there?', and then she smurfed out her finger and smurfed up the rock that I was hiding behind, and kaboom! So I smurfed out of the cave as fast as I could." Empath, Papa Smurf, and Grandpa Smurf watched as Sassette pantomimed all the actions that took place during her encounter with Drusilla. "So what do you think of that, Pappy?" she asked when she finally told her tale. "This smurf seems to sense that Sassette is telling the truth about what it is she encountered in the cave, however fantastical it might appear," Empath said. Papa Smurf was still left stroking his beard. "I think that you need to smurf it to me again, Sassette, so I can hear the whole thing." ----- Cupid was just drying himself off in the sun after taking a swim in the river. "Aaaah, there's nothing quite refreshing like a good swim," he said as he picked up his bow and quiver where he last left it by the riverside. "I love me...I love me not...I love me...I love me not..." a voice said from nearby. Cupid went and saw that it was Vanity, who was sitting out in the forest picking petals off a flower while looking at himself in the mirror. "Hello there, young Smurf," Cupid said. "I see that you are still enamored with yourself after all these years." Vanity turned to see who it was. "Oh, it's you, Cupid. I was just wondering when you were going to show up for the party, since it's your birthday after all." "I still have some work to do, so it's not yet," Cupid said. He pulled out an arrow from his quiver, not noticing that it had a black heart at its tip. Vanity feared that he was going to be Cupid's next target regardless and decided to run for it. "Let's see...," Cupid said as he looked around to find who his target might be, and then he saw another pair of deer nearby. "Perfect! This time I just can't miss!" He pulled back on his bowstring and let fly the arrow. But instead of striking his target, the arrow bounced off a tree and arced straight into the sky, heading straight over the village. Cupid sighed, realizing that he had missed. "Then again..." The arrow sailed high in the air until it exploded, releasing a small cloud of black little hearts down over the village. The hearts touched each of the Smurfs who were still busy preparing things for the party, and suddenly their eyes turned blood red as their cheery demeanor suddenly turned into blind hate. "I detest parties," Party Smurf said, as he was helping Handy put up a streamer. "Especially Smurfy Friendship Day parties," Handy said, and they both dropped the streamer on the ground and walked away. "Yeah, who needs them?" Smurfette said, as she started to tear up the hearts she was creating. ----- At the same time, Sassette was again telling Papa Smurf, Grandpa Smurf, and Empath the story of what she had found in the cave and the witch she had encountered. "So you see, Pappy Smurf, that statue in the cave was once a human that was transformed by that evil Drusilla," Sassette said. "My smurfs!" Papa Smurf exclaimed. "It's a smurfy thing that you weren't turned into a statue by that same witch when you were smurfing down there." "This Drusilla sounds like a very dangerous person, if she is so possessive that she has to turn a man into a statue in order to keep him around her," Empath said. Grandpa Smurf was going to say something on that issue when he heard an explosion outside the laboratory. "I wonder what was that?" he asked as he looked outside the window to see where the explosion had come from. "Well, I don't see anything," he said as he briefly looked up at the sky and then turned away from the window, not noticing the black hearts landing on the flowers outside the laboratory which instantly caused them to wilt. "Oh, Pappy Smurf, what are we going to do about the poor human?" Sassette asked. "If what you smurfed me is true, then we must smurf to his rescue immediately," Papa Smurf said. "You'd better smurf us the cave that you found him in, but whatever you do..." "Papa Smurf, look!" Empath said as he looked outside. "The entire village is in an uproar!" Papa Smurf, Grandpa Smurf, and Sassette went to the window to see for themselves what was going on. "Great Smurfs alive...it seems like we have a big blue brawl smurfing on," Grandpa Smurf said. "Breathing badgers, what's gotten into them?" Sassette asked. "This smurf doesn't know, but this smurf senses that there's something strange about their behavior change, and it's somehow made their eyes change color," Empath said. "We have to smurf out there and bring order to this village at once!" Papa Smurf said. He ran out of his laboratory with Empath, Grandpa Smurf, and Sassette following him toward a group of Smurfs that were just pounding away at each other. "My little Smurfs, what are you doing? Fighting is not the smurfy way to deal with your problems." The Smurfs stopped fighting just long enough to say, "Ah, shut up!", before they resumed fighting again. Then Poet got up onto the speaking mushroom with another poem that he wrote. "It's time that I recite my latest work called 'An Ode To Hate'," he said, clearing his throat before he continued. "Roses are red, Smurfs are so blue, but how I can't stand to smurf anymore of you!" Weepy was just standing there crying as he was hearing the poem. "I really hate it so much," he whimpered. "And I for one really hate Poet's poems," Grouchy said, taking the paper that the poem was written on out of Poet's hands and tearing it up. Poet looked angrily at Grouchy as he saw one of his works being destroyed. "Why, you...!" "Oh, hush up, you old hack," Smurfette said. "Your poems are the worst thing that I ever heard from any Smurf besides Harmony and Brainy." "Smurfette, that isn't a nice thing to say about Poet's works," Empath said, trying to keep the peace among the four Smurfs. "Who are you to smurf me what I should think, you star-smurfed freak?" Smurfette said. "Gee, even Smurfette's acting so unsmurfy," Sassette said. "Oh, Sassette," the three boy Smurflings cried out as they appeared behind her. "Here's the pie that you wanted." All three of them threw the pies they were carrying right at Sassette, laughing at the sight before they walked away. "Are you all right there, little darling?" Grandpa Smurf asked. "I'm fine, Grampy, but the Smurflings sure aren't," Sassette said as she wiped the pie off her face and clothes. "First they were smurfing nuts about me, and now they're just plain nuts." "I wish that I knew what was going on around here, why my little Smurfs are acting all unsmurfy all of a sudden on Smurfy Friendship Day," Papa Smurf said. "Something about this doesn't feel right, Papa Smurf," Empath said. "It's like there's some kind of magic spell being cast over the Smurfs, but this smurf doesn't know what kind of spell would make the Smurfs act like this or who was responsible for casting it." Then suddenly Tapper came running. "Empath, come quick! Your friend Polaris Psyche has fallen!" he cried out. "Tapper, you seem to be unaffected by whatever it is that's caused the Smurfs to behave so strangely right now," Empath commented. "I was in my tavern when I noticed that the Smurfs, even Duncan of all Smurfs, started to behave like they were out of their smurfs, but come with me to see what has happened to your friend Polaris," Tapper said. Empath followed Tapper to where he had found Polaris Psyche lying on the ground. He tried to use his minds-eye to examine him, but he sensed that there was something wrong. "He must have been affected by a magic spell, probably the same kind of spell that's affected the other Smurfs," Empath said. "Great Smurfiny Crickets, I can only pray that your friend will be all right," Tapper said. "He's only unconscious right now, but this smurf must take him to the infirmary to watch over him until he awakens," Empath said. "This smurf fears that if the same spell also makes him behave the same way as the other Smurfs, then it won't be long before he acts on what he is feeling from the spell." "Then I will leave him entirely in your care, Empath, while I try to help smurf the situation under control," Tapper said, as he helped Empath pick Polaris up from the ground to carry him to the infirmary. Smurf to Part 4 Category:Empath the Luckiest Smurf stories Category:The Prisoner Of Stone chapters